Nice

Dear Family and Friends,
I'm home again after driving to MBA and enjoying a day with Mia and her family.  I actually got to hold her a lot today and she is a really beautiful little lady.  Her tiny hands and big searching eyes, her soft skin and loud vocal renditions made my day.  Jo and Jason are doing a great job with she and Timothy. 
I set no alarm this morning and just climbed out into the cold when I woke.  Having been up late watching DVR offerings the night was great.  I just snuggle in under my two light blankets with Starr clamped to my side.  I roll back and forth until the blankets are wrapped tightly around me, then I just let my body create warmth.  With these super cold nights, at least for California, I keep the doors and windows closed.  The hot shower feels so welcome in the mornings and climbing out remains a challenge in the cool air.

Once I arrived at MBA today I first went to the kids house and I played with the little ones while Jason and Jo finished up on preparing the food.  Jo made many tasty dishes of food which we then transported using the back of my van.  Along with several other families we descended on the fireside room at the gym complex where a fire was roaring and the room was decorated nicely.  There was so much food, it was just amazing.  Everything was good and there were several tasty vegan dishes that seemed to be a big hit with the several families that assembled there.  After we stuffed our bodies with food many played in the gym shooting baskets or kicking soccer balls, there were little people and middle aged people there and all enjoyed playing and socializing.

At around 5 most gave up and headed back to their respective homes.  For the last hour before I left I had Mia sleeping soundly on a pillow on my lap.  It was great just watching her peacefully resting there.  Tomorrow night I'll have many pictures to share.

I missed seeing my other family today.  They spent the afternoon with their adopted family in Tracy and tonight Nikki is camped out somewhere waiting for shopping opportunities somewhere at nearby stores.  Black Friday for me will be spent seeing 4 properties and shooting comps for a couple more places.  I'll be busy and I hope to pick up a check for over a thousand dollars for some estate work.  Now that is my idea of black Friday.

I'm pretty sure you had a great day today.  I'm trying to move my perspective more and more from crisis to greatfulness.  No matter there are many things to be thankful for and to appreciate.  I wait anxiously for word from PNC, my mortgage company, how I hope and pray that they will be able to render  some help in adjustment the amount I pay each month for my house payment..  There are so many that are wrestling with big issues this year and we really need to hold each other up.

So on this special day of thanks I add my thanks for each of you and for what you are doing to lift those around you to know Jesus better, to live caring lives and to move beyond all the push for stuff to touching people with real relationships.
Love

tim

A Good Day

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”


A friend sent this and I wanted to share it.  Seems I have a lot to learn about really being grateful, about enjoying the now instead of regretting the past or dreading the future.
 
My wish is that you would enjoy your time together tomorrow, that you would express how you really feel to those you encounter, that you would fix broken things and strengthen good things, that you would treasure the simple things that are eternal and relegate the stressful things to a less important place in your life for at least one day.
 
I had dinner with a friend this evening, it was a very special time, the food was great, the rushing sweep of the day slowed to a crawl and peace reigned.  Life can keep surprising us if and when we let it happen.
 
Love to all,
Thank you family, friends for your being a part of my life and bringing great meaning to it when I will listen or be aware.
 
tim

The Winter Settles In

Good evening,
Well here it is 9:20 already and due to the very long evenings it seems like bedtime was hours ago.  This morning all the while dreading it I did drive to John Muir in Brentwood.  This outpatient facility was where I had the upper GI.  While they could improve the taste of the barium one has to drink and the crystals were something else the whole process was over in a few minutes and was done on time.  I was having breakfast at Diggers by 9:45. And what a breakfast it was, rye toast, scrambled eggs and a bowl of oatmeal that was huge and perfect.  The decaf even tasted great, now why can't I make coffee that tastes like that in my kitchen.

It was pouring rain outside and the good breakfast helped offset the procedure, a process that yielded no new evidence, they found nothing wrong, that was very disappointing as I had hoped for an answer to the constant coughing.  Well anyway one more thing eliminated from the list.

At noon I picked up her highness Keanna from day camp and we came back to the house.  She did a variety of things and at 3:45 we went grocery shipping.  She loves to shop, she comes from a long line of shopping women!  Well even Jason likes to shop.

At 5 I took Kallie to her swim lesson.  Now that was great.  Dressed in her little suit and swim diaper she splashed and kicked doing just what her instructor told her to do.  Fun fun watching her have such joy.

After I arrived home I went back out with Ray and Lois for budget pizza night at our local place.  The salad was perfect and the pizza was just wonderful, olive and fresh tomatoes.  Of course I should have stopped at one piece and instead I came home with just 1/2 the pie for later.

Tomorrow is another day in the field, I see this Fremont monster that is the biggest house in the whole area, the owner already told me it appraised for $1,200,000 a few months ago, talk about pressure.

So that was it today, my friend Sharon, who does upper GI's at a Modesto hospital all day long was my guide and when I called her and told her I was covered with blood, she was quiet for a minute and then laughed knowing I was teasing her about the procedure.  I was.  She was right, it was nothing.

Good night all,


love

tim

Upper GI on the horizon

Excuse me if I don't jump up and down about the prospects of tomorrow's procedure.  At 9 am in the morning I'm going to be drinking some stuff that is NOT a chocolate milkshake and then tecs will be watching what happens as it moves down through my upper GI tract.  What we are hoping for is a clue about why I cough so much after I eat or drink.  Could some of the food be slipping into my lungs?

Its been a good day.  I inspected a home this morning which now seems eons of time ago.  Then I had breakfast at the good old Byron Inn, 2 egg omlet with spinach, tomatoes and mushrooms.  It was so good, wish I knew how to create food that good.

Then I came home and went to work and I've been pretty much in this chair all day cranking out work and so very thankful to have work to crank out, yea!

At this time I'm leaving the stage to head to bed, get rest and climb out early and finish this report and ship it on its way.  A nice ranch on 2 acres with a horse barn and other outbuildings and all for just $385,000, last time it sold it was nearly $900,000.  Talk about a bargain.

Good night all and please keep our young families in your prayers, their lives are filled with constant challenges.

Love

tim

Mt. Diablo

Dear Family and Friends,

Suddenly the world opened up before us, we could see for many miles as the sun continued its arc downward through the silver clouds.  Lois had mentioned she would like to travel up Mt Diablo, a nearby mountain of a few thousand feet, and as I worked I became more and more ready to do something else, to live a bit so I called and they both were ready to travel.
It took awhile to find the right road up the mountain and we were not allowed to travel to the top since there was a dusting of snow this morning and the rangers were concerned about slick spots on the tarmac but we got within 2 miles of the summit.  The views of the sun setting were amazing, well here, take a look for yourself.

It was incredibly cold as we stood on the bluff and looked down to the towns spread out below, Walnut Creek, Danville, Diablo, Pleasanton, San Ramon, Dublin, Alamo, Livermore.

As we traveled down the mountain we decided to take the other road home, the one that pointed toward Walnut Creek and sure enough it actually provided us with yet another entrance to the park, one that seemed closer for our next trip up to the summit for a view every direction.

So that was our day, how was yours?

Readers Digest has an excellent article about the power of saying thank you.  I'm into being thankful this week.  In spite of terrible loses that many of us have experienced we yet have an abundance of areas and people we can be thankful for.  I'm thankful for you whether you are a family member or a friend of our family.  How dull life would be without special people who cheer us up, give us advice, pray for us and make life worth living.  And mostly I'm thankful for the good Lord who keeps on caring in spite of mistakes we make.  How I would love to sit on a park bench with Jesus and just get His take on everything in life. Oh to love like He loves, to have His insight, His strength, His understanding.

Love to all

Tim

An interesting day

Dear Family and Friends,
In life we never really know what to expect next.  Let me explain this way.  I met Wes, the person who was renting my motorhome for a week, in Clayton at 12:15.  He was a very pleasant person and quickly learned the ins and outs of the motorhome.  At about 1:30 he drove off planning to attend a birthday party in a nearby neighborhood.  At 5 pm he called to say that when the party was over and he walked out to the coach to leave for his home in San Rafael the key would not open the door and nothing he and his friends did could open the door, the key would not turn the locking part of the door to let it open.  I was set to leave for Tracy to attend Michael Ahn's wedding which was to start at 5:30.  So not sure what to do I went on the internet, searched locksmiths in Concord, found one, got an agreement for him to send a locksmith out to the address and went to the wedding. After the wedding was over I found a message on my phone.  My locksmith had decided he could not keep the appointment and called it off. Wes was still stuck at his friends house.  He called AAA and they said they could do nothing.  I was about to call my service which is run by Good Sam, a motorhome oriented roadside service but Wes told me they had found another locksmith and he was 10 minutes out.
In a few minutes he called back to say that $120 later the door was open and the lock had totally failed , it just wore out.  So I went back into the reception to enjoy the meal when the phone rang again.  It was Wes and he was desperatate.  He said he was driving and there were no dash lights so he could not see how fast he was going.  I talked him through finding a flashlight I keep near the driver's seat and had him shine the light on the dash, he did and he found the control that determines how bright the dash lights are.  Wes is a big guy and his knee had brushed the dial when he was getting in to the seat.  So he was on his way, thank you Lord for working everything out.
There were hundreds of people at the reception and wedding.  I was placed at a table of old friends from my years in Tracy and it was especially good to talk at length with Dr. Royal Aaby, a truly awesome individual.  At the table was Joyce and her new husband Bill, the Hoyts and the Tom and Sharon.  How good to see these really classy people!  The reception was great, the food was perfect, Sylvia was dressed in green in a taylored dress and looked great as she was beaming at the second wedding of her sons this year.  Michael's wife is incredible and Michael looked so happy.
So now its me and Starr, she was waiting in the recliner where I had left her at 5.  She seemed very glad to greet me and was even more pleased to have one of her treats.
It has been a very rainy day today and I've had a fire this morning burning two of my precious logs from Jerry's efforts out in the woods.  What a tremendous fire they made, warm, beautiful and it helped create a peaceful atmosphere.
So now its sleep time,

Love to all and it was so great to see Timothy and Jason at the wedding.  Timothy was a perfect little man the whole time, its easy to be proud of these incredible kiddos.

Tim

Some Rain Must Fall.......

Dear Fellow Travelers,
What a busy day it has been and again the eyes are very bleary and dry.
Today started with a lovely lady removing my stitches.  While I was glad to get them out it really wasn't fun.  As soon as I left Jim's office I drove to the Oakland hills and shot 6 comps for the Wednesday appraisal.  Then I drove down to Fremont and measured an amazingly difficult three story townhome.  Then after completing that assignment I drove up to Castro Valley and did a driveby, an appraisal that does not require you to leave your car, you shoot the subject and the street, then drive the comps and beat it out of there.

I dreaded traffic coming back through Pleasant Hill but today I was blessed with smooth sailing all the way home.  Arriving home about 3:20 I opened the mail, talked to Starr and then left again for a local property.  It was getting dark by the time I completed that appraisal.  The home was large and very nice.

On the way home Nikki asked if I could help with the girls as Steve needed to leave so I gladly picked up Keanna and then Kallie. They like to play at my house, its something different.  I made popcorn and they had Jello too.  Nikki arrived shortly thereafter and later left to feed them a real dinner.  After they left I made some cheese sandwiches using the toaster oven which I covered with thin slices of tomato.  This along with a bowl of soup constituted my dinner.  I also cranked up the wood stove and enjoyed one of the pieces of wood that Jerry had supplied.  It felt good and looked great too burning away.

Now its past time for sleep.  When I went out to take some blankets to the motorhome I found the slide roof leaking badly so I quickly closed it and used large towels to sop up the water.  I guess we have not solved the slide leaking problem after all, the best solution is to keep it closed, it does not leak when it is closed.  I have a heater going in the coach to dry it out as it is being picked up by the renter tomorrow for its trip to Arizona.  What horrible weather to travel in, not fun at all.

I hope you enjoy your weekend, what a great time to cuddle as the rain falls outside.  At least I think I remember doing that at some point in the past!

Love to all,

Tim